Announced earlier today, The Prime Group has closed its last remaining restaurant, Prime at the Bentley.
Over the last couple of months, the chain has closed Pizza da Solo (arguably one of the best kosher pizza places ever), The Prime Grill, Prime Service Station which closed earlier this year, and most recently, Prime Butcher Baker, its UES glatt kosher market.
At its peak, TPG ran multiple restaurants including those previously mentioned as well as Solo, Prime KO, Prime Burger in Brooklyn, and Prime West, as well as numerous Passover programs.
Ah this is too bad. I was at Prime Butcher just the other week, though I did notice it felt oddly forlorn compared to how it felt in the past (bright, bustling), though the shelves were still quite full. A big loss for the Upper East Side.
I doubt we’ll know whether Prime closed because people simply would not pay the prices, the rent got too high, there was no privacy or there were too many political intrigues (just ask people from the canceled Pesach program), but the decline has been slow & painful. Say what you will, Prime served food that was good even in the eyes of non-kosher diners. Nonetheless, in ten years no one will remember Prime the way some of us still recall the venerable Lou G. Siegel’s and Schmulke Bernstein’s decades after the last chicken soup and sino-steak.
The lesson to be learned is that restaurateurs who are successful can easily overeach and destroy themselves. All was going well until the disastrous deal to become in house catereratthe be Lincoln square synagogue. That wrecked the finances of the whole operation.
Likely multiple facets at play, although the LSS thing probably didnt help.
What about Prime Avenue (formerly Prime Sandiwch)? Is that not related?
Completely unrelated.